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Body of James Brown disappears from family tomb

The hardest working corpse in show business

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Update: Other members of James Brown's family have now denied the his body has gone missing. This story has been updated to reflect this.

The body of soul legend James Brown has been stolen from a family crypt, according to one of his daughters.

Other members of his family, however, have denied the allegation.

The self-styled Godfather of Soul's body was kept in the grounds of his daughter Deanna's South Carolina house while a public mausoleum was being constructed. However another daughter, LaRhonda Pettit, told newspapers on Friday that the body was missing, presumed stolen.

Brown died on Christmas Day 2006. Pettit, one of Brown's many illegitimate kids, was unconvinced of the official cause of death (heart failure complicated by pneumonia) and wanted to have the body exhumed and subjected to an autopsy.

Following LaRhonda Pettit's claims, however, Deanna Brown and brother Daryl said they were not true.

Papa needs a brand new body bag

Some of you may well ask: Where's the IT angle?

Frankly we don't really care when a story this gob-smacking breaks but it's more than likely that search engine manipulators are even now working on directing surfers looking for more information to fake anti-virus scam portals. Macabre eBay sales are also a distinct possibility. ®